Starting off my new guest post series on Infant Diapering is Erin (@Jmomma07) from Emommyhood.com. Erin shares her adventures in using cloth diapers and her decision to switch to disposable diapers. Here is her adventure in her own words:
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When my second son was about 8 months old I began clothdiapering. We are a family of four on one income and the budgetis very tight. I was struggling a lot with trying to staywithin my grocery budget every week, so I was looking to see where Icould cut things and try to save money. Honestly there is notmuch to cut, so I thought that eliminating the cost of disposablediapers would help. Also…I don’t get out much and I really reallydo love my cable and didn’t want to give it up. It is my formof entertainment and the one thing that could be cut. Plus, Nogginand Nick Jr are pretty popular with my kids..especially on a daywhere I’m sick or need to finish cooking dinner.
It took some convincing to get my husband on board because it is achunk of change to get started. They are really not cheap, butyou have to look at what you will be saving in the long run. Ialso thought about how I could cloth diaper my next child from dayone, and by the time that child is potty trained, I will have savedbig..really big. So, we made the splurge and bought thediapers. I really liked it at first, they were the cutestthings and he looked adorable in them. My 3yr old who is pottytrained also wore them to bed. The extra laundry and occasionalscraping poo off a diaper really didn’t bother me and the grocerybudget had some more wiggle room.
Then, my little guy started getting horrible rashes and thediapers began to leak and repel. So, I cranked up the hotwater heater and stripped the diapers with Dawn dish soap. I rinsed about 5 times until I didn’t see bubbles anymore. Ifigured this would take care of it. Not too long after that Irealized that the prescription diaper rash cream that I was using wasalso causing a build up. So, when he needed cream, I made sureto use a disposable liner. I stripped the diapers again. I was using regular cloth detergent after doing some research on theInternet trying to figure out what detergents were cloth diaperfriendly. Free and Clear detergents are not cloth friendly andthose seem to be the only kinds of detergent that will notcause my son to get an awful rash. I don’t use dryer sheetswith the cloth diapers, but I do with my regular laundry and theresidue in the dryer was also causing a build up in my diapers. I started getting pretty frustrated with the constant leaking andchanging sheets every morning.
One morning not too long ago, my 3yr old’s diaper had leaked allover his bed sheets and when I picked up my 1yr old my hip got allwet because his diaper had leaked so much. My toilet then gotclogged after I dumped the “contents” of my 1yr old’sdiaper in it and tried to flush it. It was 6am, I had alreadystripped a crib and a toddler bed of sheets full of urine, I wasplunging a toilet, my shirt had pee on it, and my kids were whiningat me for breakfast. I noticed the pile of regular laundrysitting in the kitchen being neglected because my washer was onceagain occupied by cloth diapers that I was trying to strip and Isnapped !!! I’d had enough.
I’m going back to disposables. Do I feel bad about it ?Yes. Am I probably going to get into an argument with myhusband about this ? Yes. Am I going to feel some guilt when I buy apackage of disposable diapers ? Probably. I feel bad about it,and my intentions were good when I began doing this, but it hasbecome too much. I don’t want to make things more difficultfinancially, but adding unnecessary work and frustration to my daywith my children is not going to be good for any of us. I triedit and it is just not for me. I need to try and simplify alittle and stop thinking that just because I’m not working outsidethe home, I don’t deserve for anything to be easy. Am I tryingto justify my decision ? Yes. To be honest, I really havea lot of respect for all you cloth diapering mommas out there ! It isnot the easiest or most convenient thing to do and a lot of you makeit work ! However right now for me, I believe I’m putting my sanityfirst.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that's great story! I always wanted to do cloth diapering but my (now ex) husband "forbid" me to do it. I knew it would be a lot of work like what you described, but I felt strongly about it.
…it never happened. Now I'm starting potty training and trying to decide between cloth training pants or disposables… -sigh-
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I had always thought cloth diapers would be much more work. I can't even find time to do regular laundry and I would feel so overwhelmed having to clean diapers too. What ever works for your family!
Thanks for sharing. We're actually about to make the switch to cloth this week.
After a whole year of disposables. The reason Oliver wasn't in them to begin with was because we live in an apartment with possible the WORST laundry I have ever experienced (and trust me I've lived in A LOT of apartments) But recently a diaper service opened up in my community and I jumped right on board!
It DOES cost a little more than our current diapering. We EC and therefore only use about 3 diapers a day, so a small package of disposable diapers lasts quite a while. But I figured without the diaper laundry to worry about it will be just like disposables only environmentally friendly!
I hope.
OH man…cloth diapering can be a nightmare. We found for our family the magic line was around 10 months. That's when we had to go to disposables. And I always had to put on a disposable on the kid for bedtime. I like the ones I have, but it takes patience. And, to be honest, I'm not sure if they are that much more affordable when you weigh in all the extra loads of laundry with extra pre and post rinses.
I had two sizes of cloth diapers – wee tiny infant and slightly bigger baby. When she still needed diapers and I would have had to buy still bigger cloth ones, I switched to disposables. I saved the environment for like 10 months. We all do as much as we can!
Oh I so hear ya. We tried to switch to cloth pull-ups when potty training my oldest child. Three loads of laundry a day, constant leaks, and having to change my daughters sheets twice a day made me change my mind and start buying disposables again, at least for bedtime. I feel guilty cause I spent a small fortune on getting enough cloth pull-ups for her.
Don't feel bad! You gave it so much effort and realized through trial and error it wasn't for you.
there are so many many factors that play into successful cloth diapering – sensitivity of little one's skin, hardness of your water, how much money you can afford to spend – that I compare it to a string of Christmas lights. When just one bulb is burned out the entire string is unusable. You can either spend hours agonizing over which bulb it is or just throw it away and get a new string. I am so glad you saved your sanity and went with an easier string of lights!
I love cloth diapering, but I know it can be difficult. If I hadn't discovered what worked for me I would have thrown in the towel too – I was THAT close.
I have always wondered what route I would take when I started my family. Cloth diapers seem so romantic and they are cute at anything.
However, I do have extremely sensitive skin so this post was incredibly helpful to me!
Thanks for the info!